Thursday’s With Raider: Episode 4 Loving the Utes Hurts So Good
MAC SERVES
As we discussed and excellent theme for this week is our fanbase and how each in our own way we often don’t get them.
And honestly the longer I am a Utah fan the more perplexing some of this behavior comes. I think what puzzles me the most is the ease with which they rewrite history. Now while basketball is a clear story the obvious place to start is football. Utah didn’t really care about football for my entire life, starting in the 1970’s until Ron McBride arrived and even then it remains a question how much. Football was something to maybe do on Saturday if you didn’t have anything else like deer hunting. Honestly remember when people freaked out if we have a home football game on the opening of deer hunting season? People cared about us having a punchers chance at BYU and then basketball came.
Ron McBride went a long way to change that but at the same time he was never going to bring us home. Ron was a good coach but he was never the guy to get you over the Hillary Step to the summit. And he was fired because 20,000 were showing up to a 46,000 seat stadium. For a long time Ron McBride was a punchline.
Then Urban Meyer came and forced greatness on this university when honestly I think sometimes the university actively works against it. He won 22 games in 2 seasons and then went to a top five job. How could anyone have a problem with that. How could anyone question the idea that Kyle is almost certainly a vastly better coach for having spent two years under Meyer.
But argue they do?
Then we turn to the last decade of Ute Hoops. Utah hoops post Andre Miller wasn’t a pretty site. Yes we won but there was no joy to be had anywhere. Marc Jackson quit, Andrew Bogut probably would have. Rick’s time had run it’s course here and the nearly 5,000 people who stopped going to hoops from 1998 to the day Kerry Rupp coached his final game, would attest. We hated Giac almost from day one mostly because he had the audacity to actually take the job when no one else would. We were told that Giac was an idiot only won with Majerus’ players and didn’t recruit any D-1 talent and we turned on him.
Then we hired Jim Boylen. Boylen took all these guys who weren’t D-1 talent (because he had too with the APR problems Rick and Ray left us) and he won with them. Then the first sign of adversity we turned on Boylen saying he didn’t recruit D-1 talent and only won with Giac’s guys. Giac in the meantime has become a misunderstood genius who no one really understand why we fired him for an idiot like Boylen
Now we have Larry. Larry, who is a genius for having run off everyone (or Boylen the crappy coach and recruiter had such a magical hold over these players that he got them all to leave) and winning only six games. He had to fix a toxic situation where everyone was going to class and there were no scandals. And Larry’s greatness is assured because by God we’ll win more than six games this year. People think I hate Larry when I’m only pissed off that we fired a guy to put ourselves in an even worse position.
As you know I grew up a Wyoming fan and I’ve come to be a Gonzaga basketball fan. And I find a comfort in those fanbases that seems to lack among Utah’s fan base. I think Wyoming and Gonzaga know who they are. Maybe Utah’s fanbase is so all over the place because they don’t have any idea who they are. Are the Mormons? Are the drunken idiots? Are they not BYU? Are the BYU fans clad in red? I just might believe ours is a fanbase with a true identity crisis, which is why it clings to odd things, claiming that they are tradition, like Crazy Lady or a logo we ripped off from the Washington Redskins.
Or maybe it’s late and I should stop playing pop psychologist and wonder about how I can get into The Avengers.
I don’t know.
RAIDERS RETURN VOLLEY
My response has to begin with a comment a friend of my brother made (for the sake of full disclosure, this particular dude is a Colorado St alum). When he was a student there, the denizens of his dorm and wherever he went around campus would typically say when the Utes came into town “we’re gonna beat them Mormons!” When I asked him the probing question that the U of U is a state-owned institution, he rebutted by saying “but to us, you guys and BYU are one in the same.”
Stop and think about that for a minute. To me, this is the biggest indictment of not just the athletic department but maybe the university as a whole. An alumnus of a conference rival for roughly half a century sees little difference between us and our arch-rival. I suppose the natural response to this has to be “is he right?”
I hope I can be forgiven for attempting to fight the previous war, but did it not get under your skin when you would see sizeable numbers of people who went to the U but are/were BYU fans? In what other locale in college athletic fandom is this acceptable? The individual that thinks this way is probably to blame to a certain degree, but from about 1972 until almost a decade ago, what did the university do to make that person proud of where they went to school?
Sadly, both of us know what happened during that time: we allowed that rival to not only define us but control how our athletic program and even to a certain degree the university as a whole is narrated. I’ve written to you “off the record” that in so many words, everyone at the U, from the president to the Crimson Club to the West Valley working stiff north endzone fan needs a major attitude adjustment. How that happens–if it happens–remains to be seen, but quite honestly, it does Ute fans and even the athletes who play here a disservice to have a Mountain West mind in a Pac-12 world.
Hey, I may have you do me a favor and check out the Avengers because I need a particular reason for going to a movie theater anymore, so…wait a minute, Scarlett Johansson is in this movie. Sold! I’m going to see this one.
Since you grew up a Wyoming fan, did you ever share the mindset of my CSU grad acquaintance? I would like to solidify my own argument a little.
The annual raising of my blood pressure that is the first Giant/Dodger series is about to go down in a few hours so I better give both of us some time to process this awkward sort of venting.
Beat LA!
MAC RETURNS WITH A BACKHAND
That is an interesting question. Utah was never all that relevant to me as a Wyoming fan for essentially my life. I went to A LOT of games at Rice Stadium because it was close. Utah destroyed Wyoming once in the early 80’s but for much of the time Utah just wasn’t very good and wasn’t someone I gave much thought to other than being BYU lite.
There is a story I wish I could write about what the hell happened to Utah during the rise of BYU. I mean I get what happened on the BYU side, their budget became whatever it needed to be and it didn’t take a ton to outpace most of the other conference. But I wish I could understand what Utah’s reaction to it was because from here it almost looks like they didn’t even try. The Crimson Club didn’t exist until 1982. It didn’t occur to them to try and fundraise in a significant way until 1982? Wow, just wow. In fact it seems like the school sort of quit in A LOT of ways in the 1970’s. Maybe our friend Pat or someone like Vegas Ute could paint a clearer picture.
It’s why I truly believe we suffer from an identity crisis, because for a great swath of our history we stopped having one. And now we cling to strange things in order to feel like we have one. This is further complicated by the mascot issue. What links a school is saying that my father and grandfather did this thing and now I’m doing it. And we have nothing like that. It’s why I named this blog after Hoyo. I mean Hoyo is nearly as racist as a mascot gets, but I’m not sure anyone in the MUSS could even name him.
Speaking of the MUSS, I think it may actually give us that, but its going to take a generation. So in 2040 when you and I are watching robots play we can talk about what started when.
As for TRADITION how about my Phoenix Coyotes. As you know I’m a Yotes fan from way back and I really think this is our year. Heard we may even have a buyer. Also no never mind all the price tags hanging off of my new Yotes stuff. Funny side note, the Western Conference final is Phoenix v Los Angeles and Toronto hasn’t made the Playoffs since 2004.
Finally bringing this full circle, what the hell do you think its going to take to get students to come to basketball games. I mean students who live on campus won’t walk 100 yards to go to the games. We tried a tougher schedule under Boylen, that mostly got him fired. Now we’re going the Utah State/Disco Stu route and just scheduling a whole bunch of really bad teams. Maybe we can steal that Winning Team/Losing Team chant. I really like that.
Did you get to the Avengers?
Also, I’m going to try to encourage my kid to become a drummer. Because drummers get chicks. And even if he ends up at band camp, drummers are still the coolest kids there.
I don’t know if you know, but Colin Cowherd is from Aberdeen, WA. Do you think they have like Colin Cowherd days and every year he comes back and speaks at Aberdeen High, telling kids who are all about to or just have discovered the joys of meth that they too can make something of themselves?
These are the things I know.
RAIDER WITH AN IMPRESSIVE BASELINE FOREHAND
Do you ever wonder what would happen if the proprietors of Hot Chicks With Douche Bags simply posted a screen capture of any particular episode of SportsNation? While many debate that Michelle Beadle may not actually be hot, I look at it this way. I can’t quite define what a hot chick is, but I know a hot chick when I see one. And so it is with Ms. Beadle. She is certainly my type, but that isn’t exactly a specific statement coming from me.
Other thoughts while I seriously wonder if the Giants are indeed beating Clayton Kershaw right now or someone is playing a joke on me with my MLB.TV account:
I enjoy a good conspiracy theory, and my theory with this year’s Western Conference Final is that Gary Bettman somehow “allowed” the Yotes to get a shot at the Cup so the NHL could recoup some cash and keep them in Phoenix. I swore I read once that the Phoenix franchise once lost $30 million in one year. That would be the equivalent of going to Trails or Lil Darlins tonight, dropping roughly $82,000 and then doing that every night for an entire year. I can also imagine how horrendous the ice surface will be if they do make it to the Stanley Cup Final.
(I also don’t have quite the same onery hatred toward the Kings that I do with tonight’s Giants opponent. But of course, the Kings are the one LA sports franchise without a title. That makes me smile a little).
(Yeah, there’s the Clippers, but that’s not really a sports franchise per se.)
Andre Ethier just grounded into an inning ending double play to keep the Giants ahead 2-1. Yeah, this is the best practical joke of the year.
Here is my idea to get students and non-students to go to basketball games and its a desperate measure for a desperate time. We need someone, preferably involved with the MUSS, to have a Controlled Substance Night. I know I’ve thought of snorting something before basketball games, so why not allow a certain type of home court advantage to tide us over? Fans can bring in whatever vice and pipe of their choice and the event staff will kindly “look the other way”. It may bring bad publicity, but we are also an institution that seems allergic to publicity, good or bad. I’m convinced that we have the 21st Century version of 10 Cent Beer Night on our hands with this.
Giants beat LA 2-1. Which is more improbable to you: that we just found a way to beat Clayton Kershaw tonight or that Andre Miller is making a major contribution right now for the Nuggets to help them stay alive against the Lakers? I mean, it is the Lakers, but Dre is still underrated after all these years. Maybe I’m getting old, but Ill take that 15 times out of 10 over Jimmermania.
I really want to see the Avengers and possibly take a human being of the female variety with me. However, isn’t dinner and a movie the lowest form of courtship? True, there might be worse date ideas but not too many that lack such an imagination.
While I eagerly anticipate your dating advice, I will mention that I’m sitting here in amazement of Dre in this 4th quarter. Such a microcosm of his college career. Man, I miss that guy.
MAC’s NET CORD
I would put a buy order on Michelle Beadle. Not in the way that I would drink Erin Andrews bath water but yeah I agree with you there. You know in an odd way I admire guys like Cowherd. I mean he’s a total douche, is from nowhere Washington, takes both sides of every issue and declares himself always correct and yet keeps heading upwards. Amazing.
BTW, the Golic Brothers had a reunion on Mike and Mike this morning. That must have been some rough housing.
I wonder if you could drop 82K a night in a strip club, would the strippers really like you then?
But returning to the topic of the week. I once sent an email to the athletic department suggesting they use the popularity of the Football MUSS to boost Basketball student attendance. Essentially take the 200 best tickets and make going to and cheering at hoops a requirement to get them. Then as a second step put students on the floor. If you look at the following photo of Illinois, they have a similar arena and have found a way to put students on three sides. We should follow.
Should you ever marry and reproduce my young jedi, it is funny how the idea of a date shifts. If the wife and I can get to dinner and a movie alone, it is now joyous. But when I was younger, if I pitched dinner and a movie, it mostly meant I was going home alone.
Speaking of Andre, what is your initial reaction to the question, is Andre Miller a Hall of Fame guard? The instinct is to say no, but his stats say, you know he isn’t that far away. Is this a crazy thing to think? Is this total Crimson colored goggles?
Finally, I am actually cheering for the Yotes because I have an NHL hook up and if they make the Stanley Cup, I will not only have seats but AMAZEBALLS seats. I could check that off of my bucket list. I saw an NBA finals and I’ll get to a World Series. And when my wife is a hot shot doctor I’ll drop a grand and go to a Super Bowl. Or I see the 2015 Super Bowl is in Glendale.
I await your stunning conclusion to this fun filled episode.
AND RAIDER SMASHES IT HOME
Perhaps I could stew in the broth of bitterness that is a division rival to the Sharks making it to the Final (its going to happen regardless) but if it is the Yotes, I have but one humble request. Several years ago, you decided to grace the north endzone with a traditional Scottish kilt. At least I think it was traditional. Anyway, I think this ought to make a triumphant return for a game in the Stanley Cup Final. You may get some sneering looks, but you could just tell them that they’re watching hockey in June. In Arizona no less.
I’m putting on my non-Ute hat for this Dre to the Hall topic. When I look back on his career up to this point, I can’t help but ask myself “hey Raider, what did Andre do that distinguished him as a hall of fame caliber player?” Dre was by all accounts a solid player, and I have yet to see his career numbers in any detail, so for the time being, I’m taking your word for it. But being a solid player and being a hall of famer are two different things.
You know, if and when a new basketball arena comes along, more things like the ideas you presented could come to pass. There is also convincing the students that they really, truly have nothing to do. Out of curiosity, you probably didnt have anything to do when you were a student, so I’d love to find out how debauched things were in your day compared to now.
I’m going to confess something here in the hopes that you won’t judge me too harshly. Or maybe you will, I don’t care. But I have a major thing for Iliza Shlesinger. Who is this Iliza Shlesinger person, you ask? Click on that.
Typically I dont go for comediennes, but I’m convinced shes the one for me. I’m not above certain types of anti-social behavior to make this relationship work, but I’m also a broken and desperate man.
I will end this week’s discussion with a possible identity for us to lay claim to from here on out. You remember that some Zoob flew a banner over Qualcomm Stadium during our 2009 Poinsettia Bowl appearance that read “we won, you lost, you’re classless”. I believe this should be our ultimate rebuttal: “We’re normal. You’re self righteous. Lick my—“…ah, never mind.